Recipe playing cards

ABSTRACT

The present invention is a standard deck of playing cards with a theme. The deck contains four English suits: spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. Each suit includes an ace, king, queen, jack, and ranks ten through two, with each card depicting the symbol of its suit. Each of the face cards and ranks ten through two contain at least a portion of a unique recipe that is consistent with the theme. For example, if the theme was cookie recipes, then all of the aces in the deck have at least a portion of a recipe for a cookie recipe such as soft chocolate chip cookies. Other themes include cakes, deserts, appetizers, vegetarian, low in carbohydrates, seasonal recipes such Thanksgiving or Christmas recipes, and recipes for drinks such as liquor or coffee drinks.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of games, and more particularly to the area of games using standard playing cards.

2. Description of Related Art

Recreational games using playing cards have been in existence for many years. A playing card is a typical hand-sized rectangular piece of heavy paper or thin plastic used for playing card games. A complete set of playing cards is commonly referred to as a pack or deck

One side of each playing card is commonly referred to as the front or face and has markings that distinguish it from the other playing cards and determine its use under the rules of the particular game being played. The other side, commonly referred to as the back is typically identical for all cards and is usually a plain color or abstract design.

The primary deck of fifty-two playing cards in use today, called the Anglo-American playing cards, includes four English suits, spades (

), hearts (♥), diamonds (♦) and clubs (

). Each suit includes an ace, depicting a symbol of its suit; king, queen, and jack, each depicted with a symbol of its suit; and ranks ten through two, with each card depicting a symbol of its suit. The ace, king, queen, and jack are commonly referred to as the face cards. Most people are familiar with playing cards and many households have at least one deck of cards.

More common than playing cards are recipes. Recipes are a set of instructions for making a food or drink item by combining various amounts of selected ingredients together in a particular manner. Many food manufactures use recipes to entice current and potential customers to purchase their product by giving the customer a recipe wherein the food manufacture's product is used in the recipe. Also, many food orientated organizations use or suggest recipes to their members. Examples of such organizations include weight watchers and vegetarian groups. What is needed is a way to combine recipes with playing cards. It would be beneficial if, clubs such as weight watchers, liquor companies, coffee suppliers, and the like could use the cards as a promotional item.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a standard deck of playing cards wherein the deck contains four English suits, spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. Each suit includes an ace, king, queen, jack, and ranks ten through two, with each card depicting the symbol of its suit. On each card is at least a portion of a unique recipe that compliments the other unique recipes on the remaining cards in the deck. For example, if the deck contains cookie recipes, then the aces may contain a recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Each ace may contain a unique chocolate chip cookie recipe or a repice may be divided among two or more cards.

For example, if the recipe is divided amoung two or more cards, the ace of spades may contain the ingredients for a recipe for soft chocolate chip cookies, ace of hearts and ace of diamonds may contain the mixing and baking instructions for the cookies, and the ace of clubs may contain variations for making the cookies. By putting recipes on playing cards it is possible for weight watchers, liquor companies, coffee suppliers, and the like could use the cards as a promotional item.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the aces of one embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the aces of a second embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the descriptions that follow, like parts are marked throughout the specification and drawings with the same numerals, respectively. The drawing figures are not necessarily drawn to scale and certain figures may be shown in exaggerated or generalized form in the interest of clarity and conciseness.

The present invention is a standard deck of playing cards with a theme of cookie recipes. The deck contains four English suits, spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. Each suit includes an ace, king, queen, jack, and ranks ten through two, with each card depicting the symbol of its suit. Each of the face cards and ranks ten through two contain at least a portion of a unique cookie recipe. For example, all of the aces in the deck have at least a portion of a recipe for soft chocolate chip cookies.

FIG. 1, shows playing cards of ace of spades 102, ace of hearts 104, ace of diamonds 106, and ace of clubs 108. The playing cards shown in FIG. 1 are standard playing cards but could be any type of playing card known in the art.

Ace of spades 102 contains the ingredients for the recipe for soft chocolate chip cookies. Ace of hearts 104 and ace of diamonds 106 contain the mixing and baking instructions for the cookies. Ace of clubs 108 contains variations for making the cookies.

Similarly, the other playing cards in the deck of cards have unique cookie recipes on them. For example, the kings have a recipe for peanut butter cookies wherein the king of spades contains the ingredients for the peanut butter cookies, the king of hearts and the king of diamonds contain the baking and mixing instructions for the peanut butter cookies, and the king of clubs contains variations for making the peanut butter cookies. Also, in the same manner, the queens contain a recipe for oatmeal cookies, the jacks for brown eyed susans, the tens for gingerbread man cookies, the nines for sugar cookies, the eights for gingersnaps, the sevens for maple cookies, the sixes for melt away cookies, the fives for snickerdoodle cookies, the fours for chocolate mint cookies, the threes for vanilla wafers, and the twos for chewy chocolate chip cookies

In other embodiments, ace of spades 102 contains the ingredients for soft chocolate chip cookies. Ace of hearts 104 contains the mixing instructions for the cookies. Ace of diamonds 106 contains the baking instructions for the cookies. Ace of clubs 108 contains a picture of the soft chocolate chip cookies after they have been baked along with tips, variations, and suggestions for making the cookies. The other playing cards in the deck follow the same pattern. For example, the king of spades contains the ingredients for peanut butter cookies, the king of hearts contains the mixing instructions for the cookies, the king of diamonds contains the baking instructions for the cookies, and the king of clubs contains a picture of the peanut butter cookies after they have been baked along with tips, variations, and suggestions for making the peanut butter cookies.

Variations on what cards have what portion of the recipe are almost endless and such variations would be known to one skilled in the art. In addition, the entire recipe may be contained on each card so a deck of playing cards would have 52 recipes.

While the playing cards shown in FIG. 1 are part of a cookie recipe themed deck, other themes may be used. In alternate embodiments, the deck may have a theme such as recipes for cakes, deserts, appetizers, 5-minute meals, vegetarian dishes, high in protein and low in carbohydrates meals, or recipes from a group such as weight watchers or some other similar program that provides specialty recipes. Also, the recipes may be seasonal such Thanksgiving or Christmas recipes. In addition the recipes may be for liquids such as drinks containing liquor or coffee drinks.

If a food or diet organization such as WEIGHT WATCHERS, liquor companies, coffee suppliers, and the like use the deck of cards as a promotional item, then the back of the card may contain a picture identifying the sponsor or maker of the deck. For example, if a majority of the deck is alcohol drinks that contain vodka and the company that produces SMIRNOFF VODKA is sponsoring the deck, then the back of each card may contain the SMIRNOFF VODKA logo.

In a second embodiment, shown in FIG. 2, ace of spades 202, ace of hearts 204, ace of diamonds 206, and ace of clubs 208 each contain a portion of a picture of the final product of the recipe. Similar to the playing cares shown in FIG. 1, the ace of spades 202 contains the ingredients for a recipe for soft chocolate chip cookies, ace of hearts 204 and ace of diamonds 206 contain the mixing and baking instructions for the cookies, and the ace of clubs 208 contains variations for making the cookies. Also, the aces of clubs 208 may contain a picture of the final product of the recipe that may or may not be the same as the one shown when all four cards are put together. Similarly, the other playing cards in the deck of cards each contain a portion of a picture of the final product of unique recipe printed on them.

Although the invention has been described with reference to one or more preferred embodiments, this description is not to be construed in a limiting sense. There is modification of the disclosed embodiments, as well as alternative embodiments of this invention, which will be apparent to persons of ordinary skill in the art, and the invention shall be viewed as limited only by reference to the following claims. 

1-17. (canceled)
 18. A method of distributing recipes, the method comprising the steps of: providing a deck of playing cards wherein each card in the deck contains at least a portion of a recipe; and distributing a deck of playing cards to one or more players; and using the deck of playing cards to play a game that involves the collection of select groups of the playing cards to form a complete recipe.
 19. The method of claim 18 wherein the cards in the deck are organized by at least four suits and each suit includes an ace, a king, a queen, a jack, and ranks ten through two and all the aces in the deck contain at least one complete recipe, all the kings in the deck contain at least one complete recipe, all the queens in the deck contain at least one complete recipe all the jacks in the deck contain at least one complete recipe, and all ranks ten through two in the deck contain at least one complete recipe.
 20. The method of claim 18 wherein each card contains a complete recipe.
 21. A method of using playing cards wherein the method comprises: providing a selection of playing cards having a plurality of groupings of cards wherein each grouping of cards forms a matching set and each matching set of playing cards discloses a complete recipe; distributing in random order a selection of the playing cards among one or more players; and conducting a game wherein the playing cards are used by the one or more players to collect matching sets of playing cards.
 22. The method of claim 21 wherein the groupings of cards form a deck and are grouped by having the same rank or by having the same symbol.
 23. The method of claim 21 wherein the playing cards are a deck of Anglo-American playing cards.
 24. The method of claim 22 wherein the distributing in random order further comprises dealing a portion of the deck to each player.
 25. The method of claim 24 wherein the conducting of the game further comprises each player collecting matching sets of groupings to form a complete recipe.
 26. The method of claim 25 wherein the recipe is for preparing food, a beverage, or a combination thereof.
 27. The method of claim 21 further comprises collecting matching sets of playing cards having one or more pictures related to the recipe shown on each matching set of playing cards.
 28. The method of claim 27 wherein each playing card within a collected matched set has a portion of a picture related to a particular recipe.
 29. The method of claim 28 wherein each player collects the matched set of playing cards and assembles the matched set to disclose a complete recipe and the picture.
 30. The method of claim 22 wherein the cards in the deck are organized by at least four suits and each suit includes an ace, a king, a queen, a jack, and ranks ten through two and all the aces in the deck contain at least one complete recipe, all the kings in the deck contain at least one complete recipe, all the queens in the deck contain at least one complete recipe all the jacks in the deck contain at least one complete recipe, and all ranks ten through two in the deck contain at least one complete recipe. 